Fortran (Formula translation) is a multi-paradigm programming language invented by John Backus of IBM in the 1950s. It is particularly notable for innovation; it was the first high-level language, using the first compiler.
The language is designed to be simple to understand, yet retains the efficiency in execution as assembly language – about 80% as efficient as assembly/machine code. Fortran is machine independent, and a problem oriented language. It is often used in the scientific community, particularly among physicists, and is designed for scientific numerical computing. Fortran allows for high parallelization, it’s easy to optimize, and lends itself particularly well to computationally intensive fields such as finite element analysis, numerical weather prediction, computational physics, computational chemistry, and computational fluid dynamics.
Fortran has evolved over time, with various standards including Fortran IV, Fortran 77, Fortran 90 and Fortran 95. More recent revisions are Fortran 2003, and Fortran 2008. Since Fortran 9x, it has many structured programming features, dynamic memory, operator overloading, and primitive objects. It is both the language of the past, the current, and the future (high-performance computing is unlikely to cast aside Fortran). Despite its age, Fortran is still very much alive and kicking. Fortran has a vast number of libraries of code.
Here’s our recommended tutorials to learn Fortran. If you’re looking for free Fortran programming books, check here.
1. Lecture Notes: Introduction to Fortran 95 and Numerical Computing – A Jump-Start for Scientists and Engineers by Adrian Sandu
A collection of useful lecture notes.
2. Programming in Fortran 95 by Dr. Rachael Padman
This handout was originally prepared by Dr. Paul Alexander, and has been updated and maintained by Dr Peter Haynes of the TCM group.
3. Introduction to Modern Fortran by Nick Maclaren
This is a basic introduction to modern Fortran. At the end of the course, students should be able to write significant programs in Fortran, and to be able to start working on existing programs written in modern Fortran (i.e. in the Fortran 90/95 style). It does not cover obsolete features of Fortran, some of the more advanced aspects, or most of the extensions introduced by Fortran 2003.
All tutorials in this series:
| Free Programming Tutorials | |
|---|---|
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| C | General-purpose, procedural, portable, high-level language |
| Python | General-purpose, structured, powerful language |
| C++ | General-purpose, portable, free-form, multi-paradigm language |
| C# | Combines the power and flexibility of C++ with the simplicity of Visual Basic |
| JavaScript | Interpreted, prototype-based, scripting language |
| PHP | PHP has been at the helm of the web for many years |
| Ruby | General purpose, scripting, structured, flexible, fully object-oriented language |
| Assembly | As close to writing machine code without writing in pure hexadecimal |
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| Go | Compiled, statically typed programming language |
| Pascal | Imperative and procedural language designed in the late 1960s |
| Perl | High-level, general-purpose, interpreted, scripting, dynamic language |
| R | De facto standard among statisticians and data analysts |
| COBOL | Common Business-Oriented Language |
| Scala | Modern, object-functional, multi-paradigm, Java-based language |
| Fortran | The first high-level language, using the first compiler |
| Scratch | Visual programming language designed for 8-16 year-old children |
| Lua | Designed as an embeddable scripting language |
| Logo | Dialect of Lisp that features interactivity, modularity, extensibility |
| Rust | Ideal for systems, embedded, and other performance critical code |
| Lisp | Unique features - excellent to study programming constructs |
| Ada | ALGOL-like programming language, extended from Pascal and others |
| Haskell | Standardized, general-purpose, polymorphically, statically typed language |
| Scheme | General-purpose, functional, language descended from Lisp and Algol |
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| Racket | Platform for programming language design and implementation |
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| ABAP | Advanced Business Application Programming |
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| Dylan | Multi-paradigm language, supports functional & object-oriented programming |
| D | General-purpose systems programming language with a C-like syntax |
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| ECMAScript | Best known as the language embedded in web browsers |
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| Markdown | Plain text formatting syntax designed to be easy-to-read and easy-to-write |
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| QML | Hierarchical declarative language for user interface layout with a syntax to JSON |
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| OpenCL | Open Computing Language |
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| Imba | Full-stack language that compiles to performant JavaScript |
| V | Statically typed compiled language to build maintainable software |
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| Coq | Dependently typed language similar to Agda, Idris, F*, Lean, and others |